It is more dense than maple and absorbs less energy, transmitting more of the strings energy into the instrument. It’s been my love and my focus since Day One.” He crafted guitars for noted players Bucky Pizzarelli, Chuck Wayne, Joe Diorio and Cal Collins, and, later, Johnny Smith, Jack Wilkins, Ron Eschete, Martin Taylor, Howard Alden, John Pizzarelli, Andy Summers, Jimmy Bruno and Kenny Burrell (collectively known as “The Benedetto Players”). thank you for your interesting insights into bridge choice. Carve the plates, make the bridge and tailpiece, bind the headstock. The disadvantage to adding spring to braces is that after a period of time (which varies from wood to wood), the braces give way to the shape of the curved surface that they are glued to, and lose their spring. Quarter-sawn stock will allow the maker to sculpt the braces optimally narrow and/or low profiled to maximize their function acoustically and structurally. The truth in making an efficient working bridge is its design and fit to the guitar to transfer the most amount of energy with the minimal amount of absorption. Carved Archtop Guitar Building Process. I think if I cut the base of the bridge (under the saddle) but I want to make sure this will work without reset. That space will quickly drop as you lower the bridge and that would prevent you from dropping the saddle any more. In this inaugural issue of “Notes From The Masters”, a new series featuring special featured articles from world-renowned master luthiers, I am honored to share with you the first guest luthier here on theartoflutherie.com: Robert Benedetto. The bone definitly brightens up the trebles and I have also used ebony too which can be just a tad less bright than the bone. The guitar works as a complete system and every thing that exists on the instrument must have purpose. You’ll also receive emails with our best content to help build better guitars. For optimum tone on acoustic guitars we recommend round wound phosphor bronze or bright bronze strings. Select an image, or start at the beginning, and navigate left and right to see this exciting process. Thanks so much Jared! It often brings a more lively feel and sensitivity to the instruments voice. The stock bridge for this (which I don’t have) was a 1-foot design, and slightly wider. But the 1990s witnessed a resurgence of the archtop’s popularity with players, collectors, and luthiers, many of whom were inspired by luthier Robert Benedetto’s landmark book, Making an Archtop Guitar. My advice to aspiring archtop makers, whose intention is to sell guitars and make a living at it, is to consider marketability when choosing your bracing pattern. For a properly adjusted acoustic guitar, we recommend medium gauge strings (High E string = .013 or .012). I think you have to have a very large aux table perfectly set up under your drill press and some pretty impressive swing. I recently acquired an archtop guitar with a 2-foot ebony Stewmac bridge that is NOT correctly contoured for the top. Adjustments to your guitar's action should be done by an experienced
technician. Without Bob’s generosity and courage to share his hard-won secrets and teach the rest of us how to make an archtop guitar through his book, I don’t know if I would be here writing this to you today, and I will forever be grateful to him for it. Think about a classical or steel string bone saddle. Enjoy! This is obviously much easier work on a maple bridge than an ebony one:) -Dan. Carving a new bridge can transform a bad sounding instrument into one that works very well. You will always get more sustain and more overtones through a one piece bridge. Archtop guitars typically have a more barking, metallic sound than their flat-top cousins, which is why they rose to prominence in the big-band era. I figure if Stradivari had an angle grinder with 36 grit flap wheels he'd would've used 'em. The lancelot sounds dicey to me... Terracing the arch with a router jig after outlining the contours and following with a die grinder and 36G flap sander as mentioned. I tend to hollow out my bridge feet ever so slightly so that it is easier to work down the edges of each foot. There is no question about the popularity and acceptance of both parallel and X bracing. However, I no longer cut these ebony one piece bridges because I kept breaking all my bridge knives;) I find the maple bridges are beautiful and I can create a very specific bridge. Now Check Out The Art Of Lutherie’s Step By Step Tutorial On Fitting Archtop Guitar Braces. Thanks again! The Luthier’s Guide To Tape For Guitar Making, Hand Split Tone Bars (A simple way to improve your next guitar), Dust Collection – The Ultimate Luthier’s Guide. The stock bridge for this (which Each bridge has a different resulting characteristic and they supply a maker with another palette of sound manipulation. That, although a bit subjective, almost any bracing pattern will work? Fingerstyle or electric players can usually play clearly with a fairly low action, while swing or gypsy players may need more string height to avoid fret buzz. I used the stepped method with templates and a router to do a LP top( bottom pic). Posted by Tom Bills | Education, Master Luthier Series, Technique | 0. (If you have a fine-gauge ruler like a machinist's rule, a good average height is in the neighborhood of about 3/32" of an inch between the top of the 12th fret and the bottoms of the E strings.) Solely owned and operated by Lance Kragenbrink, http://www.leevalley.com/US/Wood/page.a ... at=1,41182. A routine setup can usually be completed within a short period
of time. Same concept here. So, I'm trying to figure out what tools use. With figured wood you tend to plane across the grain, rather than with it. By the end, one or two swipes of sandpaper are enough to get rid of most of the hollow (On a carved instrument the surface is never flat to begin with). We’ll spare you the building of the mold and the workboard, and jump in as we get the top and back glued up and carved. For now I’m convinced that an experienced maker with good instincts can intuitively locate and fit braces in almost any pattern and achieve the desired results. D’Aquisto, Benedetto, and countless other wonderful guitar makers have had great success with the full footprint bridge. Loss of spring means loss of tension, which will have a negative effect on the voice of the instrument. After defining how each bridge works we can see that under the right condition they can both be good solutions. Both parallel and X bracing are the industry standards.